1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an outdoors umbrella, and more particularly to an outdoors umbrella incorporated with a solar lighting arrangement for securely providing illumination by utilizing solar energy.
2. Description of Related Arts
Outdoors umbrellas have been proved to be extremely popular among those frequently expose to outdoor environment. In the daytime, a typical outdoor umbrella may be utilized as a temporary shelter so that people or instruments under the umbrella are protected from high temperature or vigorous sunlight. Moreover, depending on the material by which the umbrella fabric is fabricated, even in cloudy or rainy weather, the outdoors umbrella may be utilized as a rain shelter or wind shelter. On the other hand, the typical outdoors umbrella is adapted to incorporate with a lighting system wherein a plurality of illuminating units are mounted on the awning ribs for providing a predetermined degree of illumination to a lighting zone defined as the area under the umbrella fabric. Therefore, people may utilize the outdoors umbrella with the lighting system in a variety of outdoors activities during nighttime, such as barbecuing, camping, outdoors gathering, or other events which involve considerable outdoors exposure at night.
The very advantage and convenience of the typical outdoors umbrella, however, do not shelter its disadvantages. It is the feature that the umbrella is capable of being utilized as a light source in an outdoors environment that renders its desirability to locate close to an external power source. Yet in an outdoors environment, the external power source, at least in the sense of the most typical power source for lighting system—electrical power source, cannot be guaranteed. One might utilize a rechargeable battery as the power source, but an additional step of charging the battery is inevitably needed. Very often, charging the battery can only be taken place when the umbrella is idle. Therefore, for example, when the user of the umbrella forgets charging the battery, the lighting system would not work on the next day. Sometimes, where the rechargeable battery cannot be conveniently detached from the outdoors umbrella, charging the battery would mean allocating extra space to store or to place the outdoor umbrella while the battery is being recharged.
The mounting arrangement of most of the outdoors umbrellas represents another problem. A considerable numbers of outdoors umbrellas have their lighting system mounted insecurely or in such a manner that the lighting system is functionally incompatible with the normal operation of the outdoor umbrellas themselves. As result, the performance of the respective lighting system is far from satisfactory. For example, during folding and unfolding operations of the outdoors umbrella, the awning ribs thereof may accidentally destroy the illuminating units of the lighting system. Since such outdoors umbrellas are designed for use in outdoors environment, as a result, secure mounting of the illuminating units are of utmost importance. If the lighting system is so insecure that, when subject to certain outdoors phenomenon, such as against a sudden strong wind, the lighting system is incapable of safely or unstably operating, it would not only cause disruption to the activities in which it uses, but also harm to the users, especially those standing or sitting within the lighting zone.
Furthermore, from the dawn to the twilight, the sunlight fell on the ground keeps changing at the time. In other to obtain the optimum shade from the outdoor umbrella, the user has to move the entire outdoor umbrella back and forth sometimes.
Last but not least, the typical lighting system of the outdoors umbrellas tend to be immovable in the sense that the illuminating units are permanently affixed on the awning ribs so that the illuminating directions are limited by the orientation and movement of the awning ribs. As a result, where the outdoors umbrella needs to be inclinedly supported on the ground in order to shield a particular direction, or partially opened for a particular purpose, the lighting system could not be satisfactorily operated.